Unpleasant Surprises - Chapter 2
Darkness. That was all Charlie could see when he opened his eyes. What happened to him? He struggled to remember what had happened before he was knocked unconscious. Oh. He was knocked unconscious by the man who had walked into the bakery. The first thing out of his mouth once Charlie snapped out of his stupor was, "Wow, you're smaller than I thought." Charlie frowned, offended. Yes, he has a smaller stature than your average 18-year-old male but that doesn't mean this person could just walk in and say it to his face! The man smirked at him. "Tell me, Charlie, do you believe in magic?" "How did you know my name?" Was all Charlie could say. This man is weird, he decided, backing away warily towards the pepper spray the store has to protect its employees from overly persistent customers. The man's yellow eyes flashed and he sighed, shaking his head in mock sadness, "And here I was, thinking I could do this the easy way." That was the last thing he remembers before waking up here. Shaking the thoughts away, he sat up, noting that nothing seemed injured, glancing around at his surroundings. When he saw movement at the edge of his vision, he whipped around and almost gasped in surprise. There were other people in the dimly lit room. Two to be exact. One of them was glaring angrily at him as if what was happening was all his fault. Charlie could only stare, unable to form words as the angry one pushed off of the wall and walked over to him, steps full of menace. He reached Charlie, who was too shocked to move and grabbed the shorter male's collar. Wide pale green orbs stared into angry black ones as the stranger growled, "Why did you take us here?" Charlie frowned then unclasped the stranger's hand from his collar, memories of aggressive customers playing in his head. He could deal with this type of people no problem. "To answer your question," he said calmly, "I was brought here too. I have no clue what is going on." He gazed at the red-haired man placidly, no trace of hostility in his clear green eyes despite the fact that the man had just grabbed him by the collar five seconds earlier. The face twisted in confusion after the echo of Charlie's last words died down, earning the black-haired boy a mixture of feeling insulted and amusement. In the end, he decided he felt more of the latter. "I'm sorry, is there something you don't understand?" Charlie feigned confusion. The man's eyebrows twitched and he glared at Charlie, confusion still evident. "You a girl or something?" Charlie could barely keep his face straight, the upward tilt of his mouth betraying him, "You tell me," he replied. After a second, a look of understanding came to the other male's eyes and he dropped the subject. Charlie smoothed down his rumpled shirt and gave the other a wry grin, "Name's Charlie, by the way." The ombre haired man huffed in annoyance but didn't say anything "I'm sorry about my brother." Charlie's attention was brought towards the other individual in the room with them. His voice contrasted sharply against his brother's, smooth but cold with an unwavering sense of cool politeness. "My name is North and this is my twin brother, South." South spat at his brother menacingly, "I don't need you to introduce me." The white-haired male shrugged it off and replied smoothly, "It looked like you weren't going to do that." The sound of a door opening drew Charlie's attention away from the bickering twins. Standing there, was the man that had knocked him out and had most likely been the one to bring him here. He tensed, lips drawn in a tight line. The man smirked then bowed mockingly, "Henry Gray, at your service." ... North recovered from the gray-haired man's appearance first. He doesn't recognize him. he was not their kidnapper. Whoever had taken them must have done it with a *Keiki, A shriller voice sounded from behind Henry, chanting, "I wanna see them! I wanna see them, Henry!" North's face twisted into alarm, that voice... That was the girl who had taken them from their home. South seemed to have realized that too, his half-hearted glare for Charlie had now manifested into a full-on death glare that would have killed any normal person. However, it didn't seem like this girl was a normal person. She twirled into the room, her long red braids whirling around her as if they were alive. Henry gave her a disgusted look and left the room, pausing to call over his shoulder, "Don't let them escape Charlotte." Charlotte's strange purple eyes regarded them gleefully. North heard a sharp intake of breath from Charlie. It had been surprising at first but now he was kind of used to it. Charlotte's left eye, usually hidden with her bang, was widened to an unnatural degree. It was actually the pupils of that is eye seems to be forever diluted, giving her a crazed look. Her right eye, on the other hand, was completely normal and if she would stop dancing across the room like a maniac, she could actually pass for a normal, albeit energetic, girl. "You all are finally here!" She squealed, empathizing the finally. "You have no idea how long I've waited to see you!" ... Bailey silently dropped to the floor, mind whirling with escape routes. If she remembered correctly, there was an emergency exit behind that shelf Mr. Loran put all the history books on... Luckily, she was staring at it in class and now, she has it imprinted in her mind. She estimated that it would take about five seconds for her to get to the shelf, and another three to wiggle into the crevice. Not to mention the time it would take to get the emergency door opened. Bailey contemplated this carefully. The person sounded sure that they would catch her before she got to the classroom door, which was kind of weird. But then again, everything in Bailey's situation was weird. I mean, who breaks through windows and announces that they will catch you before you get out of the room?! She glanced around in panic when she heard movement to her immediate right. The voice murmured, "Got you." A cold hand gripped her right wrist. She bit back a cry of alarm and wrenched her arm out of the stone-cold grip. No time to think now, only to act. Bailey sprang up, adrenalin coursing through her veins, hurling herself towards the self, slamming her arm on it in her haste. She gave a strangled cry of pain, something warm trickling down her arm. Bailey heard a growl behind her as she squeezed into the crevice, fumbling with the door. She caught a brief glimpse of the figure in the smoke. Their "wings" now flared out, stumbling towards her. She forced the door opened and flung herself out, immediately slamming the door shut and pressing her back against it. Breathing in the fresh cold air, Bailey tried to calm herself down. If the figure was indeed determined to catch her, she needs to find somewhere crowded. The winged figure had found a time when she was alone to attempt to catch her, which probably meant they wouldn't chase her into a crowded place. Bailey winced. Now that the adrenaline is gone from her veins, she could feel the pain from where she hit the metal shelf. "Guess I'll just have to deal with it," she muttered, then laughed at the situation. Five minutes ago, she was listening to Mr. Loran drone on about history. Now, she has a bleeding wound and she had just escaped from... whatever that was Bailey sighed then suddenly stiffened. Trying to survive, she had not realized something that was amiss. Wings. If this was a century ago, when power still existed, this wouldn't have been strange. But nowadays, no one should have abilities anymore. So why...? Bailey stood up from her slumped position and ran towards the school library. In there, there would be people and she could obtain some time to study the loss of powers. Somehow, deep in her heart, she knew something is coming. Something even bigger than the fact that the girl with wings. Something no one saw coming. *a Keiki is an instrument filled with a small amount of magic power capable of doing things such as lighting up an area, breaking a window, releasing smoke, etc. There are different kinds of Keikis, some stronger some weaker, all in all very hard to obtain.